Fort Thomas Jewelers Launched

A local jeweler, Vince Keairns of Ft. Thomas Jewelers, was looking to drive foot traffic to his store. There really wasn't a web presence so we embarked on developing a digital marketing plan that included website design, marketing, search engine optimization, and online promotions. A downloadable coupon from the website helps to drive foot traffic. We also cleaned up the brand identity and created some calling cards. Welcome Ft Thomas Jewelers to the client roster.

MSN's Live Search better than Google?

I have recently been focused on search engine optimization for a variety of my clients. I have read a tremendous amount of information, consulted friends in the business, and I am using many of the tools offered by Yahoo and Google to help monitor, measure, and adjust content to improve placement. Recently, I have been watching the traffic on several sites I manage and have noticed an increase in traffic from MSN's Live Search. This bump, in many instances, is specific to adjustments I made but have not yet been picked up by Google. Seems that MSN's robot is significantly more busy indexing the net - by days even weeks. And, interestingly enough, MSN appears to be following protocols and tactics for building natural, organic relevance. See, I do not believe in tactics and trickery that gain temporary relevance. These guys must be out on an island away from the mother ship because Microsoft NEVER follows best practices or protocols. I am impressed, though.
For instance, I have been doing a link building excercise for one of my sites over the past week. Nothing else has changed on the site to produce better relevance. But, I checked Google Analytics this morning and MSN is driving more traffic on the keywords I targeted months ago than Google and Yahoo together. Position 31 in MSN, 130 in Google. The frustrating thing is that I have submitted sitemaps, robots.txt, and other information using Google webmaster tools meant to enhance the process.
What this means to everyone is a renewed attempt to create relevant, timely results in the search engines. It appears to me that MSN is doing it right with little or minimal effort from me, no sitemap submissions or account setup. And, we all know what competition does in this market.
MSN - keep up the good work.
Google - don't take your eye off the ball.

Getting inside the web consumer's head

An interesting article about consumer behavior online. Points of interest include; the growing impact of the social networking sites to online retail traffic; full product information online has tremendous value for the consumer and decision to buy, both online and in-store; the web functions as a source of consumer education and point of entry to bricks and mortar; oh, and Google still accounts for the most retail traffic.

Read Article

eMail Marketing Promotion - Success and Failure

I belong to Marriot's rewards program and get a monthly email promoting various programs and travel packages. This month, however, was different. They were offering a vacation package for user participation on their website. Feeling a bit deserving of a vacation, interested in the free getaway, and equipped with my "spam" email account, I proceeded. The user had to answer 2 questions requiring audience participation on their website, which I have seen implemented successfully in the past. They also offered a unique "hint" flash animation showing the user where to find the information on their website - clever, I thought. The first question was to find more about the website feature. The second question was great, requiring the user to actually use the feature they were promoting - a hotel comparison tool. This was a terrific way to drive visitors to begin using a feature on your website. So, I searched the site, used the feature, and answered the question. It said "I'm sorry your answer was incorrect", but it wasn't - I checked three times. It was a multiple choice question in which a couple of the answers were right but not one was correct. Odd, I thought. Feeling a bit dejected, I went about my business. Then, I checked my email account later and there were about a dozen of the same emails from Marriot thanking me for my entry. Can you say blacklisting?

What a prime example of a great concept, driving traffic to the site and forcing users to interact, but failing miserably on the execution - two accounts.

Brand experience grade - D - for doing damage. Next promotion won't get my click.

New Year, New Clients

Following the holiday season, it is now time to dig in again and put the nose to the grindstone.

Many exciting things are happening in the new business including the additions to the client roster with Trauth Dairy and Thomson Learning coming on board. Welcome!

Happy New Year and thanks to all of my clients for making 2006 a great beginning for Southbank Interactive.

- Russ